Lawmakers are pushing millions of dollars in federal funding to boost global manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines in the Democrats’ next $ 3.5 trillion package, arguing that the Biden administration needs to do more to fight the pandemic at all the world and prevent the formation of new dangerous variants.
A group of 116 Democratic lawmakers, including more than half of the Democratic House Caucus, wrote to congressional leaders and President Biden
Joe Biden Spotlight addresses GOP McCarthy on January 6th. Biden’s investigation visits the union hall to commemorate Labor Day. last month, asking them to support $ 34 billion to increase global COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing and help distribute vaccines around the world.
The push occurs when health experts increasingly ask the administration to do more to vaccinate the world, as many countries have still vaccinated only a small percentage of their population, providing fertile ground for new variants to be developed that they can threaten everyone, including Americans.
But sponsors of the push in Congress say they have not yet received firm commitments on the issue, either from Congress leadership or the White House.
“No one has committed me to this,” Rep. Tom Malinowski
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Supreme Court abortion ruling Nancy Pelosi amplifies Klobuchar progressives’ reform petition: Senate must eliminate filibuster to protect abortion rights. (D-California) and “everyone I’ve talked to understands the need.”
Henry Connelly, a spokesman for Pelosi, said: “We continue to look for ways to increase funding for global vaccine distribution and manufacturing, based on the nearly $ 8 billion in funding for GAVI, the Alliance Vaccine World Bank and the World Fund guaranteed by the president of previous coveted relief bills ”.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi
Subramanian (Raja) Raja Krishnamoorthi The time has come to advance patients and taxpayers in the face of opportunists in the transplant industry. The House subcommittee is pressuring Johnson & Johnson on the plan to discharge the baby’s dust liabilities. The president directs the import of drugs and calls for a plan to lower drug prices The FDA is calling for a federal investigation into the approval of MORE Alzheimer’s drugs (D-Ill.), Another push leader, said sponsors had not yet received a “formal response” from the White House.
“I think we have more work to do,” Krishnamoorthi said. “We need to convince people that this is a priority.”
Response Coordinator at the White House COVID-19 Jeff Zients
Jeff Zients, Maryland Governor: We receive “mixed messages” from the Biden administration to push for FDA retirements, which rekindle the debate over Biden’s strengthening plan. announced on Thursday an investment of about US $ 3 billion in the vaccine manufacturing supply chain in the United States, which he said would also help increase the world’s supply.
“We can and will do even more,” Zients said.
The Biden administration already plans to give 500 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine this year and next, with more than 130 million doses already delivered.
But lawmakers and experts say much more is needed, including manufacturing capacity to produce more doses in lower-income countries.
Malinowski says the administration must “intensify” its efforts.
“They announced the donation of 500 million doses,” he said. “Even though it looks like a very large number, it’s actually missing a zero.”
World health leaders have constantly sounded the alarm about unequal access to vaccine supply among richer and poorer countries.
The World Health Organization has set itself the goal of vaccinating the most vulnerable 10% of the population of all countries by the end of September. But he said on Thursday that 42 of the 54 African countries should lose that target given the current pace of vaccinations. So far, only nine African countries have vaccinated 10% of their populations.
In August, more than 200 health experts and civil society groups wrote to Biden calling for a “war foot” to increase the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines for the world.
The letter urged the president to present a plan to reach the capacity of 8 billion vaccine doses a year within six months and called for a plan to be announced within a month.
Signatories to the letter included Thomas Frieden, the former director of Obama-era Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Paul Farmer, co-founder of the Partners in Health group.
“A supply is being controlled by a very small number of countries,” said Krishna Udayakumar, director of Duke’s Global Center for Health Innovation. “Not evenly distributed.”
“One of the reasons we need to invest more in manufacturing is to create a globally distributed manufacturing model,” he said, granting more access to low- and middle-income countries.
Leading lawmakers say the new $ 34 billion in funding may not be needed if funds are already available that have been allocated, but said they do not have a clear account of how much is currently available.
A report by PrEP4All, an HIV advocacy group also working on the COVID-19 response, found that the Biden administration had spent only $ 12 million of the $ 16 billion planned in the American Rescue Plan earlier this year for in the manufacture and acquisition of vaccines, medicines and equipment.
A group of experts has also convened world leaders this week to convene a world summit during this month’s UN General Assembly and commit to actions that include 7 billion doses of vaccine available by the end of the year.
“We are seeing a lot of partial efforts,” said Udayakumar, one of the experts who made that call. “None of this will be resolved if it is not taken in a complete way.”
Krishnamoorthi said funding is needed in the next congressional package to “end” the pandemic instead of simply “managing it.”
If funding is not included, he said, “it condemns us to managing and confusing the way through this pandemic until we get to the next variant of Greek lettering.”